Adjustable font size in equation editor

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas


The default size of the equations built in equation editor is smaller than I would like, but the dragging the equation to resize does not increase the resolution so it becomes blurry. Being able to set the font size in equation editor would allow me to make the equation larger from the beginning.

10 Comments
James
Community Champion

Here is a related question: Adjusting resolution of fonts used in CANVAS Equation Editor

Rather than seeing the ability to adjust the font size within the equation editor, I'd rather not use bitmap graphics at all. Then it could scale with the font size of the base text or when user zooms in.

stewartd1
Community Novice
Author

I don't currently know how to write LaTex, and I definitely don't have admin privileges. Do you know if it would be possible to use a vector image format instead of bitmap?

James
Community Champion

I looked at it a long time ago and found something I didn't like, but it's been so long ago I don't remember what it was. Other people like it, and I'm kind of picky (and already know LaTeX), so I'll throw WIRIS out there as a possibility that might work for others. Again,I don't know whether or not it will generate vector images, but it supposedly recognizes handwriting and is JavaScript driven, so it's probably worth looking at.

WIRIS is an LTI for Canvas that adds an icon to the toolbar.

Here's the WIRIS page about integrating with Canvas: Math and science for Canvas

Here's a link to the EduApp Center for LTIs. https://www.eduappcenter.com/  (search for Wiris)

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

Thank you for your submission.  Your idea has been placed in a holding stage as we restructure our feature idea process.  Read more about this project in the Changes Coming to Canvas Community Feature Ideas .

j_denholm-price
Community Explorer

I'd like to add a plug for Mathjax here as it'd satisfy this use case and give copy/paste capabilities for learners and teachers.

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

 @stewartd1 ‌, thank you for your idea! It will open for voting on March 1, 2017 as part of the relaunch of feature idea voting. Find out more about the changes we made in Changes are here: New feature idea processes went live Friday! (2/24/17).

James
Community Champion

While this doesn't directly address the font-size issue, I thought I'd pass on a related tidbit.

I don't remember seeing this officially announced anywhere, but someone pointed me today to a message from June 8 in the APAC Community group talked about Canvas is now rendering equations using SVG instead of images. Changes to LaTex processor . The warning there was that some of the LaTeX commands are no longer supported.

But the good news for everyone else is that you can now zoom without experiencing pixelation. This may be a "if possible" thing, but I checked it in Firefox and Chrome on Windows and Safari on a Mac. I couldn't figure out how to get the Canvas iOS app to zoom the page, so I wasn't able to test it there.

This was added to the Canvas source code back a while ago (early August 2016), but perhaps it just now got turned on for everyone. They're now using the MathMan service if enabled and CodeCogs if MathMan is not enabled. 

stewartd1
Community Novice
Author

Thanks James, it looks my issue has been addressed!

KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: New
 
KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Completed